The moment the clock strikes midnight on the current CBA, all
those images and videos of NBA players have to disappear off
NBA-owned digital properties. Depending on how you interpret
"fair use," the prohibition could include the mere mention of a
player's name on an NBA-owned site, though different teams have
different interpretations of this particular stipulation.

While this might seem quaint, Arnovitz points out that it’s
throwing a huge wrench into how the editorial and marketing
staffs of these websites do business.

For one, websites layout and multimedia capabilities will be
stripped down to the bare bones. The NBA has built identical,
rudimentary websites for each team to use during the lockout.
“We’re going back to the stone ages of the Internet,” one team
website administrator told ESPN.

In addition, sites will struggle to come up with original content
since they can’t even mention a player’s name. “How much can
Rockets.com write about Clutch the Bear before fans tune out and
go elsewhere for their Rockets fix?” Arnovitz asks.

This content glut will undoubtedly cut into page views. The fans
who went to team sites for trade rumors and free agent news will
end up going elsewhere, so selling ad space will be that much
more difficult for marketing staffs used to have reliable page
view stats.

A prolonged lockout could really hurt these sites in the long
term. If readers are forced to go elsewhere to get any
substantive NBA news for months at a time, who’s to say that they
would come back?